1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a component conveying device, and more particularly to apparatus which separates a head component and a second component among the components conveyed by aligning in a single line.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a conveying device of small components like chip components, an apparatus has previously been proposed in which a bottom surface of a groove for conveying and guiding the components includes an endless belt and the components are conveyed by intermittently driving the endless belt. (See Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 8-48419). In the case of this apparatus, in order to take out a head component, a mechanism is provided that separates the head component on the belt from a second component. When the component on the belt moves forward along with the belt, this separation mechanism moves a stopper into contact with a front end of the guide groove and stops the head component in a fixed position. When the head component is in contact with the stopper and movement of the entire component stops, the stopper is released forward while holding the second component in position by a hold pin, and the head component is made to move forward by a permanent magnet in the stopper. A gap is forcibly formed between the second component and the head component, and the separated head component is taken out by an extractor, such as a chip mounter.
However, in the separation mechanism described above, in which the head component is moved by the permanent magnet provided in the stopper, when the belt stops and is pulled out forward by the magnetic force, friction occurs between the component and the belt when pulling out the head component, and the force between the permanent magnet and the component may decrease. Therefore, there is a problem, in that the separation reliability is insufficient.
Thus, an objective of the present invention is to provide a component conveying device which can reliably separate the head component from the second component and can easily take out the head component.